Be Chic, Be Successful

Every now and then you find the most unexpected validation for your idea, maybe someone expresses articulately, what you had vaguely considered for a while in the back of your mind. Once a film professor claimed I had been reading his mail, because our thinking on one subject was so surprisingly the same. And that was for an online class, in which I never met the professor personally.

I enjoy reading and looking at good magazines: Lucky, Domino, Fast Company, Inc., Martha Stewart publications, to name a few. I think seeing beautiful pictures and reading the latest trends in different areas is interesting and stimulating. Usually I don't read many letters to the editor, but Saturday, I was reading the just-arrived June Issue of Fast Company and a reader comment caught my eye!

I've been thinking a lot about our craving for beauty, and how it always pops up no matter how much we repress it. I'm incorporating some of this thinking and some practical aesthetic teaching into my public speaking courses, especially in terms of creating effective visual aids to accompany the presentation. That would be my contribution to confront the "death by Power Point" syndrome.

And this is the fascinating comment from Joshua Letourneau, of Atlanta, Georgia (reprinted without anyone's permission): The ability to convey complex points or large amounts of data with simple images is as much an art as a skill. I'd love to see business schools incorporate an art class.

ME TOO! And furthermore, I think web designers should take Zen art classes to avoid so much clutter. As I told Anita, a computer gal who's helping me develop this into a "real" web site, "I'd rather have a tasteful and not-profitable web site, than a tacky money-making site."

Have a creative and chic Tuesday!